Dan Savage
“”I'm a deeply conservative person.
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| —gay sex advice columnist Dan Savage[1] |
Dan Savage is the author of a weekly sex and life advice column titled Savage Love. He is an atypical advice columnist; he often tells people to "Dump the MF Already" (DTMFA, for short) or to have an affair to get their needs met. At the same time, he has some criteria for such advice, and typically presents his advice in a rather rational (and sometimes, extremely snarky or bitchy) way. He is not related to Michael Savage, who is also said to go up the down escalator.
For many people, straight or gay, Savage is a hero, and has amassed something of a cultish following. For other LGBT people, he is "cissexist, sexist, anti-asexual, anti-bisexual, classist, racist, sizeist, and ableist," a faux ally of anyone but privileged cisgender gay people, and actively damaging to the queer community.[2]
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[edit] The Savage style
Blunt, sarcastic, flippant. Back in his early days of writing advice columns, he had a standard salutation of "Hey faggot"; although he hasn't used it in a very long time, he does use terms like that rather profusely in the spirit of reclaiming them. He is also a ranter, and most of his podcasts start off going off at some length about at politics and sex in the news before getting into questions.
Savage is not a fan of mandatory monogamy, and in addition to being generally supportive of people who choose swinging or polyamory, has been known to condone affairs under certain ethical conditions, usually a freezeout from the other partner or a medical inability to have sex. He strongly disapproves of people (especially men with female partners) who don't offer oral sex to their partners. He also feels pretty strongly about trying to keep children out of the crossfire of failing relationships, and in such cases usually prefers reconciliation to divorce unless there's abuse involved.
He once answered an trans man's honest query with a flat "Yes,"[3]; in context, the issue revolved around the transman's partner's dislike of the smell of his vulva, and Savage feels very strongly about ending relationships with major sexual incompatibilities. In fact, as a general rule, he treats non-sexual issues as secondary concerns unless verbal or physical abuse is involved.
Savage feels very strongly about LGBT youth in small towns leaving and moving to cities at the earliest feasible opportunity, based on a concept called the Urban Archipelago[4], the now-familiar county-by-county map of swaths of Republican red surrounding splotches of Democratic urban areas. This idea of leaving for areas that are more accepting rather than trying to change what they'd leave behind is one of the underlying motivations of the It Gets Better project, mentioned below.
There are in fact only three sexual matters Dan Savage unconditionally disapproves of -- pedophilia, scat (E. coli is no fun), and bestiality (animals can't consent).
[edit] The good
He is a large walking nightmare for Conservapedia, Focus on the Family, and any other "gays are bad parents" and "homosexual sex is just bad" type of groups. Many have pointed to his admission that his relationship is not 100% monogamous as proof that homosexual relationships are not healthy; he points to the sheer numbers of divorces and hidden affairs in heterosexual relationships as proof that his relationship is no less healthy.
Savage, openly homosexual, openly happy, openly healthy, openly comfortable with the human body and sexuality in general, openly qualified to actually use the English language correctly, has also shown himself to be a bit traditionalist regarding family and relationships, suggesting that his husband stay at home with their adopted child, and frequently blasting the bathhouse culture of anonymous sex that, among other things, led to the spread of HIV and the perception of AIDS as a gay disease. He has become something of a pundit as well, going on CNN and Bill Maher's program to push sex-positivity and same-sex marriage. Many shows (excluding Maher's) love to pair him with an anti-gay bigot, and watch the fireworks.
Savage, being a critic of Republican ex-senator Rick Santorum, waged a successful campaign to get the senator's last name taken up as a dirty word.
[edit] It Gets Better project
Savage is well known for starting the "It Gets Better" project, that encourages gay and transgender adults to tell kids that "it really does get better". On September 21, 2010, directly in response to the 5th child in 4 weeks to kill themselves because of bullying and harrassment over their sexuality or perceived sexuality, Savage posted a Youtube video with his husband/partner, telling kids that "It gets better". From that video, he started the It Gets Better Project. A host of famous names added their own videos, from Ellen Degeneres and Chris Colfer, to the employees of Pixar and Google and the Chicago Cubs.
The project has come under fire from within the LGBT community for being ineffective at curbing self-harm and suicide - as well as from the fact that for many LGBT subgroups which aren't composed of white cisgender men,[5] it really doesn't "get better" and the project is out of touch with their intersectional realities.[6] The "Make It Better" project was founded by the Gay Straight Alliance shortly thereafter, and promotes active engagement to stop bullying and harassment rather than just accepting it.[7]
[edit] The bad
Savage has a definite problem with privilege blindness and generally being an asshole toward people who don't meet his normative standards (e.g. any of the letters after "LG" in the variants of "LGBTQA"), and has a tendency to double down on certain comments when he's called out on them. He has suggested that gay people stay away from bisexual people when looking for anything longer-lasting than a one night stand;[8] his logic has to do more with jealousy and insecurity on the part of the gay partner than anything else.
[edit] Transgender community
He mockingly suggested Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna was a trans man[9] (he's not). He seems to have been following a sort of "it's only an insult if the person in question claims to oppose it" logic, but that particular column just failed all around. Then he updated the post and apologized.
[edit] Republicans
Savage's emotions have gotten the better of him and he has said some incredibly ballsy stupid things, such as "I wish Republicans were all fucking dead."[10]
[edit] And others
Savage also believes that people on the asexual spectrum might want to think twice getting into romantic relationships with "normally sexual" people,[11] based on the logic that a major libido mismatch in a relationship is a potentially major liability.
[edit] Neologisms
Savage, with the help of his readers, has added a few new words to the English language:
- DTMFA: Dump The Motherfucker Already -- standard advice to someone who is in a relationship where the other partner is clearly the problem and the situation won't get better.
- Santorum: the frothy mixture of lube and feces that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex, named for former United States Senator Rick Santorum.
- The above has been expanded upon: To "rick" is to remove something with your tongue — the "r" from "remove," the "ick" from "lick" — which makes "rick santorum" the most disgusting two-word sentence in the English language after "vote Republican."
- Saddlebacking: the practice of engaging in anal sex as a means by which to preserve one's virginity. Named for Rick Warren's Saddleback Church.
- Pegging: a name given to the act of anal penetration by a woman with a strap-on dildo.
- Monogamish: someone who is mostly monogamous but occasionally has sex with others with the consent of their monogamous partner.[12]
- GGG: "Good, giving and game." His basic mantra for how people in a relationship should approach sex: they should strive to be good at pleasing their partner, generous in meeting their partner's needs, and game to try new things as requested.
[edit] External links
- The Savage Love column at the AV Club
- Spreading Santorum website
- [4] Lulzy anti-Dan Savage ad created by Christians which makes him look awesome
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Dan Savage. "Dan Savage on Swinging and Monogamy." YouTube. 2009 February 26.
- ↑ From this site's description
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ http://www.urbanarchipelago.com
- ↑ In the wake of It Gets Better
- ↑ Why I don't like Dan Savage's It Gets Better project as a response to bullying
- ↑ Make It Better web site
- ↑ Love indeed savage.
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5iWp9fDiU
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ Meet the Monogamish, Savage Loge